“How bad is it out there James?” Ozpin asked as Ironwood held onto the support railing in his aircraft.
“It’s bad Oz. The natural barriers are helping protect the majority of the city, but with their airships, that isn’t much of an advantage. We’ve managed to keep them at a reasonable distance, but it’s only a matter of time before they start sending dropships over the city and getting troops on the ground to hurt us from the inside.” Ozpin clasped his fingers together in worry.
“Call everyone else you can. Most of the members from the meeting are still around Beacon. I can reach out to them and scramble a few fighters with the best we have to offer here at Beacon as a form of quick support. It will take a while to mobilize the armies of Vale and who knows if Vacuo will even reach there in time.”
“Don’t stretch yourself too thin Oz.” Ironwood said as he made his way over to another console and started inputting commands to the rest of his forces. “That might be the Order’s play. Strike one area and pull our forces into a trap leaving the rest of the world vulnerable to sudden attack. Send what you can without leaving your kingdom defenseless. I’m in no rush to head to Vale after this battle today. Especially if it’s under attack. Talk later.” Ironwood then ended the communication, leaving Ozpin to quickly grab his Scroll and call Beanie.
Everybody was sitting around in the common area in the dorms reminiscing over times past with everybody together. Yang started to chuckle as she looked over at Gray.
“Did I ever tell you kids how your father and I wound up on our first date together?”
“You told me several times” Ember said rolling her eyes at her mother. “I still think it’s super dumb.”
“Nobody ever told me that story” Gray said, clearly trying to hide back his sadness with a smile.
“Well, it happened not long after our first mission with Team NEMN and Team JCTB fighting Grimm and White Fang” Yang said as she started to frame the story. Suddenly Beanie’s scroll went off.
“Sorry guys,” Beanie said as he stood up to leave, “I have to take this.” He proceeded to head off into the next room, while Yang continued her story.
“So me and Nathan suggested to Miles and Blake that we have everybody meet up at this local café to relax and celebrate our first successful mission together!”
“Oh please,” Miles said pinching his forehead while he tried to hold back a smile, “don’t remind everybody.”
“So we told them we would all meet at this café,” Yang said continuing like Miles wasn’t even there, “but what they didn’t know, was that it was only going to be Miles and Blake with me and Nathan forcing the two of them to go out on a date!”
“Get out!” Gray said as he tried to hold back his laughter.
“It’s true!” Ruby said with a smile on her face. “And then they did everything they could to make sure they hung out together no matter what happened! Even making sure that the big pet parade…..”
“Sorry to interrupt everything” Beanie said running back into the common area, “but I just got off the phone with Ozpin.”
“What’s wrong?” Christy asked standing up quickly.
“Did the Order make a play?” Ty asked grabbing his sword from off the ground as he stood up.
“Yeah.” Beanie quickly pulled up a holographic image on his Scroll. “Haven Academy is under siege by the Order.”
“How soon do we leave?” Brooklyn asked as she cracked her knuckles.
“Right now” Beanie said as he started heading out towards the docks. Everybody started following Beanie as he sent out the battle hologram to everybody in the nearby vicinity. “Everybody who’s a full-fledged Huntsman and Huntress here is expected to fly out to Haven Academy ASAP.”
“What kind of support are we looking at for our side?” Jacob asked as he looked over the hologram. “Looks like the Atlesian Military is already there.
“A good chunk of them are. Ironwood doesn’t want to leave all the kingdoms defenseless in case they make a move on the other kingdoms as well as Mistral. We’re mostly going to be ground support in the city. The airships currently have a blockade keeping the Order’s airships out of the city, but we don’t think it can hold forever. Or at the very least, keep them from sneaking in.”
“All right” Ember said as she deactivated the hologram and opened her contacts tab. “The rest of my old team are in town waiting for me. I just told them to meet us at the docks and come with us.”
“I’ll get in touch with my dad in Menagerie if Ozpin hasn’t already and see if any members of the militia or maybe even the White Faun would be willing to fight alongside us” Blake said as she quickly started tapping away on her Scroll.
“What about us?” Gray asked as he ran in front of the group.
“You are going to stay here at Beacon and away from the fight” Yang said as she picked up Gray and placed him back with the other members of Team GASH.
“That’s not fair!” Sora said as he flew forward a little bit. “Haven is my home! My family is back there! I need to help them!”
“Besides,” Hera said stepping forward as well, “if there’s a chance we could run into that Tenebris jerk who…..well if we see him we want a piece of him!” Everybody stopped walking and all the parents turned around.
“That’s exactly why you’re not going” Miles said in a firm voice.
“The Order is willing and capable of doing anything” Yang said with a clenched fist. “Even killing kids.”
“Believe me, I would know” Natalie said showing off the stab wound she had received years ago from Lord Mortem.
“We’ve already lost Nathan” Blake said folding her arms. “We aren’t willing to lose you as well. And Sora, I know your parents would say the same thing.” Everybody was silent, but then Team GASH retreated back into the dorms and left their families to head out into whatever was waiting for them Mistral.
“This stinks.” Hera said as she kicked the ground in anger. “All of them faced even greater and worse threats when we were their age. We should be out there helping! We’re more than capable!”
“That’s probably why they want us to stay behind” Aurora said placing her hands behind her back. “We are capable enough, but you heard what they said. If the Order decides to attack here then we don’t want to be stretched out too thin. Plus, if the army fails, we will be the last line of defense. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my first year here at this school to result in us transferring or having to take time off because things fell apart.”
“Still,” Gray said with clear disappointment in his voice, “I wanted to take a swing at that monster who killed my dad.” Everybody stopped walking for a moment, not sure how to process all these emotions. They were just freshmen, and they were already in a situation beyond their control.
“I wanted a crack at him too” Hera said clenching her fist. “But something tells me, we might just get our shot at doing that before this is all over.”
2 Hours Later
The dropships started to make their way into Mistral airspace, and everybody got a chance to truly see what was happening. Airships firing at each other, enemy soldiers at the gates of Mistral trying to break in while the brave soldiers, Huntsmen and Huntresses already on the ground held them at bay. As they flew towards the main command ship of the Atlesian forces, they saw a few airships from Menagerie appear in the distance as well. When everybody was together finally, Ironwood popped up on the local communicators in the dropships.
“Thank you for getting here so quickly” he said as he continued to send out commands from the deck of his ship. “They haven’t been able to break through the main gates and their airships are still stuck behind our blockade. But there are some other complications at play here.” As he said this, Pyrrha popped up as well on the communicator.
“How are you holding up cousin?” Jacob asked as he saw that Pyrrha was clearly stressed out.
“I’ve had better days, but that’s not important right now. There are a few possibilities that the Order may exploit that we need to make sure keep the people safe.”
“Like what?” Christy asked as she looked out the window. “Looks like they aren’t getting in anytime soon.”
“We hope not, but there are some possibilities” Pyrrha pulled up a map of Mistral for everybody to see. “One is that our forces at the main gate are probably about to fail, and that will leave the city open to their attack. And that’s not accounting for the hordes of Grimm that are probably not that far off from us now. It’s a miracle that we haven’t seen more than we already have. Especially a giant Grimm like we’ve been anticipating. But there is one other potential leak.” Pyrrha then zoomed in on the waterfall that ran from the top of the mountain and down into the city. “Centuries ago, there were several hidden passages built into the mountain that lead out of the city behind the waterfall. I’m afraid that if somehow the Order knows about it….”
“How could they?” Evan asked as he looked over the map. “You told me yourself, the only people who knew about those tunnels and where they lead were people with high level access.”
“Yes, but given how deep the reach of the Order was all those years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised that they have some form of information on these tunnels. I think it would be good to at least have a small team on standby in case they do make a play there.”
“My team can go” Bovia said speaking up. “The water gives me an advantage, and the rest of my team is more than capable of dealing with threats like this. Plus, if these tunnels are as secret as you make them out to be ma’am, then they will probably only send in a small strike team to get in and create an opening for the larger army to break through. But if we stop them there, they may give up all together.”
“I’m fine with this strategy” Ironwood said. “Team BEAT will guard the secret tunnels, while everybody else heads down to the ground to help with the immediate threat.”
“What about the airships?” Natalie asked as a nearby Atleasin fighter went down in flames.”
“We can hold our own. Plus, the new air support that seems to be arriving from Menagerie will be extremely helpful. Also with luck, the armies of Vale and Vacuo will be arriving with what they could afford to give up for this fight soon. And that will put the Order at a disadvantage. Until that time arrives, we need to keep the Order from hurting people.” As Ironwood finished talking, Miles was already standing by the jump doors.
“We’ve wasted enough time strategizing” he said as he drew his swords. “Now is the time for action.” With that, Miles jumped out of the side of the airship and started angling his way down towards the battle at the main gate. Following suit, Ty and Jacob leapt out as well, while most everybody else waited for their best opportunity to leap out and join the fray. Most options for a proper landing strategy were off the table, so they had to make do with what they could find. Soon though, everybody had leapt off the airship and were in the midst of the battle. That left Team BEAT on the dropship to be taken into the kingdom itself and dropped off by the entrance to the secret tunnels behind the waterfall. They all then prepared their weapons for battle, ready for whatever would come out of the shadows to face them.
“You guys ready?” Arri asked as she spun her scythe around. Terra pulled some rocks from the ground and formed a suit of armor with them.
“Just like old days” Terra said punching her fists together. Bovia smiled and charged her aura by standing beneath the waterfall.
“Nothing can stop the BEAT!” Ember rolled her eyes at their leader’s bad pun, but readied her weapons.
“Let’s do this.”
Lord Imperia watched as the remaining members of the strike force loaded the dropship.
“You have your orders” she said as they all strapped in. “Do not fail.” The strike force nodded their heads as the door closed and the dropship took to the skies. Lord Imperia then turned to see Lord Tenebris getting his supplies ready.
“You are sure that you know the correct path?” she said with skepticism.
“Have I given you any reason to not trust me my lord?” Lord Tenebris said with anger in his voice. “I know the way.” Lord Imperia smiled and watched as Lord Tenebris made his way over to a small speeder and flew towards a small almost hidden cliffside on the mountain that made up the kingdom of Mistral.
“Then open the door to our victory Lord Tenebris.”
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